1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the collection and entering of data associated with a survey or other data collection mechanism using a computer system and the use of the survey data in cataloguing multimedia data.
2. Background Art
Data is sought and collected from different sources and used to, for example, assist in making economic, marketing, etc. decisions. The collected data may be used to supplement historical information with personal experiences and to identify behavioral patterns. For example, the United States government collects census data from households that may be used by governmental entities and community organizations to allocate funds, develop social programs as well as by the business sector to locate factories, shopping centers, etc. Surveys may also be conducted by businesses to determine consumers"" attitudes and behavior to assist in the research, development and marketing of products.
In a survey, data collection is typically conducted by posing a set of questions to a set of participants in person, over the phone or in writing, for example. The answers are typically recorded in written form and processed or analyzed in some manner. Existing techniques for analyzing data lack the ability to generate a cohesive data, or knowledge, base of responses across surveys which would facilitate data analysis. Further, existing systems do not provide the ability to relate a survey data base to a multimedia system.
Increasingly, computer systems are being used to present multimedia material. Such material is usually in the form of text, graphics, video, animation, and sound. Two or more of these data types are usually combined to form the multimedia data presented by the computer system. A computer system that is used to present multimedia material is called a multimedia system.
A cataloguing mechanism is useful to catalogue multimedia data in a multimedia system such that the multimedia data may be identified and retrieved by searching the catalogue. For example, it is beneficial to be able to associate descriptive information of a catalogue to segments of multimedia data. The descriptive information may be queried and used to identify relevant segments of multimedia data.
A problem exists in capturing descriptive information that may be used to catalogue multimedia data. One mechanism that has been used to collect information is a survey. It would be beneficial to be able to incorporate the results of a survey into a catalogue that may be used to search and retrieve multimedia data.
A method and apparatus is described wherein survey data collected from different survey versions may be retained in a cohesive data, or knowledge, base that may be used to catalogue multimedia data. A survey schema is defined that comprises survey elements that may be used to define surveys and capture survey data. In one or more embodiments of the invention, survey data comprising answers to survey questions is stored in one or more elements of the survey schema. Answer elements of the survey schema may be associated with one or more elements of a catalogue of multimedia data. The linked survey data may be used alone or in combination with the cataloguing system to retrieve multimedia data.
In addition to retaining survey answers, a survey schema comprises survey elements that may be used to build different forms or versions of a survey (a survey instance). Examples of elements of a survey schema used in embodiments of the invention include: section, question group, question, answer, data object, insert, choice group, choice item, for example. A section may be used to group question groups, inserts and sections. An insert may be used to capture repeatable data. A question group may be used to group questions. An answer is associated with each question and may also be associated with an insert. Any combination of questions may be used with any combination of data types for answers to the questions.
According to one or more embodiments of the invention, an answer value may be stored as an attribute of an answer element or as attribute (or attributes) of another element associated with an answer element (e.g., a data object or answertext element). Examples of answer and data object types include text, boolean, date, location, movement, person and keyword. New answer and data object types and data objects may be dynamically added to the survey schema. For example, currency and health types may be added to capture currency and health answers.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, survey data may be associated with elements of a multimedia data catalogue. In one or more embodiments of the invention, survey data comprising a survey, survey answers or both may be queried and the results of the query used to identify multimedia data. A survey schema comprises elements that may be used to build a survey (or surveys) and store answers to survey questions. Elements of the survey may be linked to elements of a multimedia catalogue that are associated with the multimedia data. Survey data may be queried to identify a catalogue element and the multimedia data associated with the catalogue element.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, a phrase element of the catalogue is associated with a multimedia data item and with other catalogue elements such as keywords and persons. In one or more embodiments of the invention, an answer and/or question stored in a survey schema may comprise, or otherwise be associated with, catalogue elements such as a keyword (or keywords) and/or a person (or persons). By identifying a catalogue element (or catalogue elements) in a query operation on an answer or question in a survey schema, it is possible to identify phrase elements. Thus, in one or more embodiments of the invention, an association is formed between survey data and multimedia data via one or more catalogue elements.